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Tom Adair
| birth_place = Newton, Kansas, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = San Diego, California, U.S. | occupation = American TV/Film screenwriter, composer, and songwriter | years_active = 1944-1988 | series = I Dream of Jeannie | job = writer, with James Allardice | episodes = "Get Me to Mecca on Time" in Season 1 }} Tom Adair (15 June 1913 - 24 May 1988) was a noted screenwriter, song composer and songwriter whose career spanned five decades, from the early 1940s to the late 1980s. He co-wrote the Season 1 episode of I Dream Of Jeannie titled "Get Me to Mecca on Time" with frequent creative writing partner James Allardice. Biography Early life Tom was born Thomas Montgomery Adair in Newton, Kansas, the only child of William Adair and Madge Cochran. His father owned a clothing store in Newton; around 1923 he sold up and moved the family to Los Angeles. Tom Adair attended Los Angeles Junior College (now Los Angeles City College), and then joined the local power company, working as a clerk on the complaints desk, while writing poems and song lyrics in his spare time.http://www.originalmmc.com/tomadair.html Career From June 1944, Adair worked with composer Gordon Jenkins in writing a complete score every week for the Auto-Lite radio show, which featured singer Dick Haymes. He wrote many hit songs, including "Let's Get Away From It All", "Everything Happens to Me (song)|Everything Happens to Me", "In The Blue of Evening", "Will You Still Be Mine?", "Violets for Your Furs", "The Night We Called It A Day", "The Skyscraper Blues", "A Home-Sweet-Home In The Army", "How Will I Know My Love?", "Sing A Smiling Song", "Paul Bunyan", "There's No You", and "Weep No More". In 1949, Adair wrote the lyrics for the Broadway production of Along Fifth Avenue.http://www.playbillvault.com/Person/Detail/7389/Tom-Adair It ran for 180 performances at the Broadhurst Theatre, with the original cast including Carol Bruce, Jackie Gleason, George S. Irving, Hank Ladd, Donald Richards and Nancy Walker.http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/songs/stage_detail/C48/25213 Work with James Allardice Adair first met James B. Allardice while working on The Ann Sothern Show (1958); he wrote the music while Allardice was a writer on the show. Adair went on to have a successful partnership working on the sit-com, Hazel (1961); however, they also collaborated in the writing on two episodes of "Hazel": "A Replacement For Phoebe" (which aired on 1961-10-02) and "Harold's Good Fortune" (which aired on 1961-11-30). Later the two collaborated on many other shows, including My Three Sons, F Troop,, Hogan's Heroes, I Dream of Jeannie and Gomer Pyle. The partnership lasted until Allardice's death in 1966. A late triumph was the lyrics for an NBC cartoon special, Babar Comes to America (1971) with John Scott Trotter. Personal and Family life/Death In 1949, Adair married Frances Jeffords; in later life, they worked together on songs and teleplays for Disney.http://www.originalmmc.com/tomadair.html They had four children, Micheal Adair, Richard Adair, Ann Trousdale (Adair), and Robin Brown (Adair); and four grandchildren Tom Adair, Kristi Adair, Jennifer Adair, and Julie Adair. The Adairs retired to Honolulu, Hawaii in 1984. On 24 May 1988, Tom fell down a staircase and died from blunt force trauma. He was 74. References Category:Screenwriters Category:Real People Category:I Dream of Jeannie